Adam Silver I would see it as a failure if we did not keep the team in Portland We need a state of the art arena By any objective measure the current building there in the bottom measure of any arena in the league

Bill Simmons on Adam Silver and Portland Last couple years it seems revenue money finance driven is the job and I don't know if that's the job In this case you should care about Portland This would be a really bad one

Bill Simmons It's just never worked in New Orleans and I am not sure they should have an NBA team I feel way differently about Portlandeven Memphis which you mentioned earlier

Adam Silver We discussed ongoing negotiations with the Euro League We believe that NBA Europe would be strengthened by joining forces with the Euro League It doesn't have to happen but I think we would all be better off as a unified front in Europe in terms of the potential investors

Adam Silver I think that in terms of Steve's Ballmer statement I'd say putting aside the precise words he chose to use Most importantly he indicated a willingness to accept the league's decision in this case and the accompanying sanctions so that's initially what I was most focused on

Bill Simmons My fear for people in Portland is that he Tom Dundon looked at what the expansion number would bewhich everybody's saying is between 7 billion and 8 billionand he's like 'Ahh I can just steal Portland for 425 billion and just move them somewhere else'

Adam Silver on schedule and LeBron